Epictetus - Man Quotes

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It is the critical moment that shows the man. So when the crisis is upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a tough and stalwart antagonist. 'To what end?' you ask. That you may prove a victor at the Great Games. Yet without toil and sweat this may not be!

Epictetus
Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.

Epictetus
If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense (answer) to what has been told you: but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only.

Epictetus
I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is of the day.

Epictetus
No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

Epictetus
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Epictetus
Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Another's.

Epictetus
The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.

Epictetus
It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.

Epictetus
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.

Epictetus
When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?

Epictetus